Austin or Bust!

We were able to make it out of town for a much needed weekend getaway. Austin was the choice because a) more than a 3 hour drive is pushing it for all 3 of our sanities and b) Austin seems like you're out of state it's so hilly and gorgeous! The fam picked me up from work on Friday and we headed out on the road stopping at Chick-fil-A for lunch of course :) Mark slept on the way and was just the cutest when he was awake dancing and meowing to Veggie Tale songs. We arrived as scheduled on my itinerary to the Embassy Suites near the Arboretum, and much to our surprise they had a little pond stocked with 2 swans and huge koi fish. For the rest of the weekend Mark requested to see the "quack quack"'s anytime we were in the room. It was nice that we had this added attraction at our disposal since it rained ALL weekend. We rested Friday evening and ended it with a fabulous dinner over looking the lake at The Oasis and watching Mark dance to the live Beatles music.

Saturday morning we had our cooked to order breakfast, complimentary I might add, and then we were off to Zilker Park to ride the "choo choo" as Mark calls it. I just have to say that the Lord was watching out for us all weekend, making sure we were able to enjoy our plans despite the rain. Ok back to the low down...we made it to the train just a minute before they were taking off. For the first couple of minutes on the train Mark was repeating, "Choo Choo, Mama, Choo Choo." I'm sure the neighboring passengers were thinking, "Yes we're on a choo choo." He was SO excited! We were 98% finished with our trip around the track and it started to down pour!!! We were so thankful that we were able to get that train ride into our trip! We then headed off to Phil's Ice House for burgers. It would have been the perfect place for kids because of the sweet semi covered play ground, but it was raining and muddy. So anywho I totally recommend it for later trips with kiddos. They also had a photo booth and we were able to take cute pictures with our sweet family. I love photo booths!!! We went back to the room for naps, swimming in the indoor pool and then had dinner at the County Line BBQ. Again, thank you Lord, we were able to eat right before the place got super crowded, and we were able to enjoy the river for a few minutes and feed the turtles before it started pouring again! We ended that night with some amazing ice cream combos from Amy's Ice Cream. Another recommendation for a trip to Austin, it's conveniently located next door to Phil's Ice House.

Sunday we enjoyed our hot breakfast again and then I decided that we must make a trip to Ikea on the way home so we could shop for organizational and decorative things for the house, since holy cow, Molly will be here before we know it!!! Mark got a cute stuffed soccer ball which he entertained himself and his Daddy with while I shopped. After a little Pei Wei, and a random stop to Cinnabon in Hillsboro we were home. We ended that evening with a great visit from my sister, Mary Ann and her sweet family. We enjoyed visiting with them because they are moving to Indianapolis very soon. We'll miss seeing them often and I hope they enjoy the elliptical that they so gracioiusly took off our hands to make way for Molly.

It was a great weekend! Dave and I will miss the possibility of exercise...NOT! Now it's time to hunker down and get after that nursery! I spend my spare time now blog stalking for inspiration. Share with me any sites you have found and enjoy my links posted :)